Sponge cake question

[AInightingale]

Son has to make a Victoria sponge for his HE course this year, research recipe he can use, etc. We thought we were safe with Mary Berry, the recipe on the BBC website, but it's made a very heavy sponge with bubbles on top. It is an all-in rather than a creaming method, i.e. she instructs that you break the eggs into the bowl first, then add the butter, sugar, flour and baking powder all at the same time. I was taught that you definitely cream the butter and sugar first, then add eggs and fold in flour? I know the method she uses works okay for cupcakes, but it certainly hasn't worked for a cake. (I'll still eat it obviously. 😊)

For reasons I won't bore you with, I have done quite a lot of research on sponges recently. . This version, a classic in Australia with similar versions also seen in South Africa, is not a Victoria sponge. It is a type of chiffon or genoase sponge which, I believe, originally originated in france/netherlands and the point is that it is very very very very light and fluffy without the substance of a Victoria sponge - which absolutely needs fat. For the purpose of a Food Tech project, I imagine it would not be suitable.

In terms of the creaming thing, my mother was an excellent baker and her advice when creaming butter and sugar in a recipe was always - beat it until you think it's done.... then do it for another minute or two. It's advice that's always worked for me!

If you do it again then weigh your eggs and use that for the amount of sugar, butter and flour.

The all in one method should work but strictly speaking it isn't a victoria sponge if you have not creamed the butter and sugar.

I still have aches from having to do that at school, no mixers allowed.

but strictly speaking it isn't a victoria sponge if you have not creamed the butter and sugar.

Why?
The ingredients are the same except for a bit of baking powder.

I have no idea, but it was drummed in to us at school, so it could be complete nnonsense.

I always use the Nigella recipe and it is definitely not heavy. It has a small amount of cornflour in and (full fat) milk. It makes a lovely, fluffy sponge.
As a pp said, it’s important that the butter is soft , and everything is room temperature. I never use anything other than butter for the fat content.
I used to have bantam hens, they lay small eggs, so you use three for two full size in baking, they made very Victorian Sponge cakes due the higher ratio of yolk to white, but you don’t need to go that far.. just use Nigella’s recipe.

The Mary B recipe states 'baking spread'. I used this. could get very expensive if you were experimenting to get it right, using butter every time!

I always use tub Stork.

A few years ago I did an experiment and made some fairy cakes - half with butter and half with Stork. My family blind tasted them and preferred the Stork ones because they were lighter. The ones made with butter were slightly greasy.

I always add a little vanilla extract in plain sponges so they wouldn't have been able to detect any difference in taste.

I would never use anything other than butter in recipes like shortbread though as the whole point of shortbread is its buttery taste.

Get the cakes into their tins quickly, don’t faff too much making them exactly smooth, and into the pre heated oven quickly. The raising agents start to work as soon as they are wet, so if you don’t move quickly the raising all happens outside the oven and of course is lost. This might cause the bubbles on top

Yes this- you need to crack on once you've mixed wet and dry.

Bubbles at the top can also be caused by the oven not being properly hot when you put it in or if air is not circulating properly eg you've put the cake underneath a solid shelf.

I always think with Mary B recipies that she comes from an era where soft tub marg was a great invention for making cakes 😀I wouldn't be too far behind her myself and yes it was all I used years ago and preferably Stork. I think time and science have made us realise that all that hydrogenated stuff was not good! I know they have changed the make up of it these days but personally when baking for family I use all butter. When I baked for markets I used half butter/half stork, there is no doubt you get good light result with the right tub stuff (assuming it has proper fat content) but half of each gives lightness plus flavour, a good compromise I think.

I frequently use Mary Berry’s all in one cake method and it tastes great. I use a butter spread like Norpak (Aldi’s version of Lurpak) which is a mix of butter and rapeseed oil. Mary Berry’s recipe usually use stork as she says the oil helps keep the sponge soft.

The thing to remember with the all in one method is not to over mix.

If you go with the creaming method using butter, it will probably taste slightly better but be a bit less soft.